What happened to mastodon? We don’t just want to move from one walled garden to another.
- BlueSky is mostly centralized and easier to understand. No server choice stuff
- BlueSky has the better name
- BlueSky has the cleaner UI
> BlueSky is mostly centralized and easier to understand. No server choice stuff
It's not supposed to be this way even though it is right now. They're intending for it to be actually fully federated.
But the "server choice" stuff is a bug in the existing design of Mastodon anyway. It shouldn't matter which server you pick because you should be able to change it at any time seamlessly, e.g. by uploading a copy of your posts to any other server, where your posts are backed up to your local device by default.
So then the question is, does Bluesky repeat the error when they get around to it, or does Mastodon fix it with an update, or both or neither? But it's not inherently an advantage for Bluesky, unless they get it right and Mastodon doesn't fix it.
> BlueSky has the better name
The old thing was called Twitter, which is the same kind of parody of itself as Mastodon. Now it's called X, which is somehow even more of a parody of itself.
It turns out having a silly name doesn't stop people from using it.
I'm on mastadon, but its clearly harder to use, and theres way lower engagement.
It does mean search (and as importantly, likes and comments) are globally consistent so there's def a trade off.
Bsky has a better UX so it attracts a wider diversity of users, which can make it seems more prominent than masto, but the value of federation is interoperability. Mastodon can keep all of its users and still share its content on bsky and vice versa. It's not a zero sum for one of them to win or lose.
A walled garden implies captured user data and social graph, which is the decentralized part of Bluesky (ATProto to be precise). The difference to Mastodon (ActivityPub to be annoyingly precise again) is in funding needed to host the entire thing.
With ActivityPub, you have to find recluse with a war-lord who will now own your data and handle, and spend a not-too-insignificant amount to keep up the infra (enough that instances have folded due to finances). With ATProto, one has to find a seemingly sympathetic oligarch who does NOT own your handle or your data, and has to spend an average european income on keeping up the infra.
Different threat models, different game theoretical plays really
These are all propaganda sites. The value is the influence.
I didn’t say that. What I said is the word “non profit” has no bearing on it. And it may even be a negative signal, as the organization wants to appear neutral or moral.